Define Basic

Being an upstate New Yorker I have an affinity to fall activities. Unfortunately the rise of the “pumpkin spice” has made everything about Fall, basic.

What exactly is basic? It ‘s a person who has no defined characteristics. They don’t stand out in a crowd, they don’t develop their own opinions about anything, they post Instagrams of food 24/7, they wear uggs & leggings and love selfies with their pumpkin spice lattes.

With a day off on my schedule I wanted to make a visit up to my parents in Albany, NY where it is easy to get all the fall activities out of my system. I was afraid of being called basic or enlisting in pinterest for craft projects. Then it hit me, this isn’t basic of me at all. I’ve been doing all of this since day one of my life. I grew up raking leaves an jumping in them, carving pumpkins for Halloween and giving my jack-o-lantern one tooth, I ate apple and pumpkin pie and I even went apple picking. Instagram has made all of this “basic”, but I didn’t care. I wanted my fall fix.

As I took the Amtrak upstate along the Hudson River I also was thinking about how I was going to tell my parents about going to Thailand. It was a 50/50 chance what their reaction would be. They could either not understand and want my to get a full time job, some corporate 9-5 with a 401k and health benefits. Or they were going to be supportive. I wanted the later, but for some reason thought I was going to get the “WHAT?!” response.

*travelling tip* I took Amtrak for $41.50 one way and took Adirondack Trailways home for $15.50. Typically I will only use megabus or Adirondack Trailways, but was feeling my-self and took the train for comfort and time (2.5 hours rather than 3.15 hours on the bus).

When I got picked up at the train station my mom was already in full swing fall mode asking me what I wanted to do. We decided we wanted to:

Go apple picking

Make a pumpkin pie (from scratch)

Craft by making mini cardboard houses inspired by Martha Stewart

Carve a pumpkin and make it into a planter

Eat apple cider donuts

In the morning my mom, dad and I we set out south on I-90 and headed to the apple orchard to pick apples. We went to Phillips Orchards where there are no people in sight, you can drive your car through all of the isle of apples and they don’t have a limit about how many you can get. We stopped at a farm stand after and picked up zucchini for .99 cents each (no matter the size), acorn squash for $1, a rather large pumpkin for $7, a baking pumpkin for $2 and fresh cherry tomatoes for $1 a case. I couldn’t believe my eyes for the prices! In Brooklyn this amount of vegetables would have cost me at least $30 and it only cost us $12. Deal of the day. I wasn’t feeling so basic after this purchase. Feeling great in fact.

On our way home we picked up apple cider donuts from Golden Harvest Farms. Another apple and pumpkin farm along Route 9 which also has a distillery. I scarfed down two donuts knowing I wouldn’t be eating them again for the rest of fall. When we got home my mom and I quickly put the pumpkin in the oven for the pie and I learned how to make a home made pie crust. I was starting to feel a little basic until I realized I was learning a life long skill. For the rest of my life I had something to bring to any pot-luck, holiday dinner or supper. I call that a win.

The hardest part of my whole fall experience was making the cardboard houses. They take patience, glue drying and the art of painting straight lines. There is nothing wrong with being crafty though.

Then we enlisted my dad to help us make the pumpkin mum planter. This was the one project that felt a little pinteresty and basic. However, once we set it up I told my parents the rest of the neighborhood would also start making them. Making us the leader and them the followers. Is my ego sticking out too much?

Going back to the definition of basic. I conquered my fear of having a “basic” fall day. I found a great deal on fresh vegetables, I learned a new life skill of baking a pie and I didn’t drink anything with artificial flavoring.